On Wed, Jul 30, 2025 at 06:58:13PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk wrote:
I don't care much about running processes. I care about non-volatile copies of time_t (or whatever the type is called).
Is it the case that all non-volatile file systems represent times in some way that extends beyond 2038? If not, which are toast? One guess: 7th Edition Unix Filesystem.
Do programs that matter represent times in vulnerable ways in non-volatile storage? Think databases, but not just databases. If they use time_t, the stored representation is already not portable between 32- and 64-bit systems. Or between big-endian and little-endian machines.
Why don't I care much about running processes? Because we can update them to use 64-bit time_t and just reboot. Surely there is time to reboot such a system in the next 13 years.
Good point. ext4 filesystems have 64 bit time support or at least something that goes way beyond 2038. ext2 and ext3 do not. If you are using either of those for /boot you better deal with it sometime in the next 13 years. reiserfs also uses 32 bit time. And SQL has a timestamp problem which needs to be dealt with (I suspect at least some databases have dealt with it already). -- Len Sorensen